Picture the Judgment Seat of Christ on the Last Day. Multitudes throng the throne of God and verdicts are being read. You are approaching, but before you reach the Judge, you hear a plea filled with deep anguish along the lines of: ‘…but Lord, I responded to an altar call. I said the sinners’ prayer and the preacher told me that I was saved…’
There is a picture on social media currently causing a spectacle in which a particular well clad ‘Remnant Prophet’ mimics the ‘Triumphal Entry’ with his followers laying down palm branches. It seems like the picture is from his last year’s visit to Angola.
In a fast-paced world that survives on fact-packed news bytes, people easily satisfy their hunger for power, pomp, and prosperity by use of a little prediction. For people in a country like Uganda, someone who ‘taps’ into the spiritual realm comes in handy. And when our worlds spin faster than light, we have no time to pause, ponder, or even pray. We ‘receive’ whatsoever our apps bring, without stopping to deliberate and decide wisely.
If there is a text that has proved complex for Bible readers, both ‘Lay’ and ‘scholarly,’ it is 1 John 5:16-17. I have sought various viewpoints and interpretations. I have read the passage over and again. The text remains complex, and the sin that leads to death seems to stay elusive.
I hope this is a convenient time to have a chat, to have a conversation that matters. I have earnestly followed the discussion on social media and watched your excitement about the ‘Men of God’ in town. I understand. I too have some people whose teachings excite me. After all, we were created for praise and made for worship.
The Greek word γλώσσα (glóssa) means tongue or language. A Tongue may refer to the physical organ (Mk 7:33, 1 Cor 14:9, James 1:26). It may also mean ‘the language used by a particular people in distinction from that of other nations.’[1] This is how it applies to Acts 2:11; Isa. 66:18; Dan. 3:4, 5:19. When used this way, it refers to a common language people speak, like English or Luganda or Chinese, or a language that is unintelligible to man.
Ron Highfield in his rather great book Great Is the Lord mentions that ‘(God’s) uniqueness is personal and incommunicable.’ He also says that ‘the biblical declaration of God’s uniqueness does not speak merely of divine nature.’
Today, during the class break of Systematic Theology One, I had a short conversation with a fellow seminary student about the doctrine of Inseparable operations. The main idea this teaching conveys is that in every action God does in the world, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit act inseparably, and indivisibly.
It is said, by those who have done proper study and investigation, that Christianity has shifted its geographical center of gravity from the global north to the global south, (Latin America, Africa, and Asia).[1]
A reader of my blog asked me to do a simple write-up about deliverance. Not that this topic is so simple as to be exhausted in a couple of words, for ‘deliverance’ can mean different things depending on who uses it and how.
